TransDimensional Shift
by sparkshift
Summary: A mysterious girl appears in one Torchwood, while another Torchwoods searches for her. Gifted with knowledge that few in the universe possess, she quickly sets off to return home, and reunite lost friends in the process. Set during seasons 3 and 4.
1. Chapter 1

The young girl sat in the corner, trying not to be seen. However, it didn't seem to be fear of her surroundings that kept her hidden. She was trying to prevent others in the room from seeing what she was doing. She was fiddling with an odd watch on her wrist, her brow furrowed in consternation.

"Hey, are you alright? It's alright, no one's gonna hurt you," a blonde said, walking carefully over to the girl. Around her, men grabbed their guns, raising them at the girl who had appeared in an odd flash of light.

The girl looked up, her green eyes swiftly taking in the blonde walking towards her, and the men with their guns. Her eyes were disconcerting: so old on such a young face. She didn't look to be more then eighteen, and was wearing a sea-green hoodie and dark blue jeans. "You want to tell them to put down the guns? Then maybe we can talk."

A man with dark brown skin lowered his gun and frowned at her. "You American?" he asked, a London accent coloring his voice, the same as the blonde's.

"Yeah. Obviously. We in London?" The girl asked curiously, giving up on whatever she was trying to do with the watch. At the man's nod, she continued. "Huh, I was in Cardiff a second ago." Suddenly her eyes narrowed, taking in her surroundings more carefully, looking at the logo on one of the computers. "I thought this place was destroyed."

Everyone frowned at her in confusion, until the blonde stepped forward again. "Are you talking about Canary Wharf? The place with the ghosts, yeah?" At the other girl's nod, she continued. "That place was destroyed. This version is still here, 'cept—"

"Oh, I'm going to kill him!" the girl exclaimed. "He got me stuck in a parallel world! What did I tell him about playing with the rift?" she grumbled, and then took a deep breath. "Sorry, um, I'm Sparky. I work for Torchwood Three sometimes; I'm friends with the captain."

"How old are you?" The blonde asked.

"Seventeen," the girl replied with a shrug. "But no, that's not too young. I mean, you humans mature so slow, yeah, but not everyone in the universe." At her words, the guns were back.

"Whoa, put them down. I'm Rose by the way, and this is Mickey Smith. What do you mean though, are you an alien?"

The young girl frowned at her. "Yeah, of course. And if I wasn't, going through the rift unprotected would have killed me, let alone crossing the void. That would have blown all my lives in one go!" she sighed. "But luckily I have some Ziton crystals, so that stabilized things a bit. If I had been in my ship though..." she trailed off, looking unsure.

Rose stared at her, eyes wide. She swiftly grabbed the girl and Mickey, and dragged them into her office, locking the door.

"Rose, what's goin' on? You look like you've seen a ghost or something?" Mickey said.

The blonde ignored her friends questioning. "What are you exactly? What species, what planet?"

The younger girl walked over to the window, observing the alternate world, her sharp eyes taking in the old and new sights. The zeppelins filling the skylines, the Thames gently flowing, many familiar buildings. She took a deep breath as she turned back to Rose and Mickey. "Like I said, my name in Sparky. I was raised on earth, born there actually. Never really knew I wasn't human until I opened that watch..." She took another deep breath, her eyes distant for a moment. "My planet was destroyed in a war, but it was called Gallifrey."

"Gallifrey? You're from Gallifrey? Where is that?" Rose sputtered, staring at the young girl in front of her. Seventeen years old, with natural whitish blond hair and deep green eyes that seemed too old on her young face. She was wearing contemporary clothes common to teenagers. She looked so human that it was difficult to believe that she was wasn't.

"No, I'm from earth. I was born on earth. My species just comes from Gallifrey." She seemed adamant about being from earth, like it was more important than anything. "It's like...if you were an illegal immigrant in America. If you had a kid there, it would automatically be American, despite whatever nationality you are."

Mickey nodded at her. "Okay, well then, what species are you then? I mean, you look pretty humanoid...are you from any future human colonies then? Rose said that she's seen some."

Sparky rolled her eyes. "I can assure you that I am _not_ human. And anyway," she said, turning to Rose, "How would you have seen all of that? I mean, no offense, but twenty-first century earth isn't that advanced, in any universe."

Though the question was aimed at Rose, Mickey replied when he saw Rose's face pale, as it usually did at any reminder of her time with the Doctor. "I think you're avoiding the question."

"I think you're right," Sparky replied lightly. "Hmm, well apparently my people had many names. We were well known across the stars, for our technology and our abilities. But like I said, Gallifrey was lost in a war. It's gone now. I'm not sure if there are many of us left." Rose was regarding this girl intently now; she had a feeling she knew exactly what this girl was. She had mentioned a war, having multiple lives...quite similar to things she had heard from her former travelling companion. "But most commonly, I believe, my people were known as Time Lords...though I think that I would be called a Time Lady."

Mickey gasped, exchanging a look with Rose. "So you're like the Doctor then?"

Sparky's eyes flew to his. "You know the Doctor?"

"Yeah," Rose answered carefully. "I used to travel with him. All 'cross the stars, visitin' so many worlds, meeting' all types of aliens." Her eyes grew sad. "But then I got stuck here."

Sparky regarded Rose carefully now, taking in both her words and the emotions that accompanied them. Obviously, Rose had cared deeply for this Doctor, and didn't enjoy being trapped in the parallel world. "You're not Rose Tyler by any chance, are you?"

Rose gasped. "How'd you know my name?"

"Well, like I said. I worked for Torchwood Three sometimes since I'm friends with the captain...Captain Jack Harkness."

Rose's eyes widened. "Captain Jack? He's alive and workin' for Torchwood? The Doctor never told me about that!" Rose began to sway where she stood, and Mickey guided her to her chair. Offering to get everyone tea to calm them down, he swiftly left the room.

"Yeah, well Jack always wondered why he was left behind. He went back to the past, hoping to find you and the Doctor again. He really misses you both," Sparky said softly, walking to sit across from Rose.

The blonde nodded. "Alrigh', Jack's alive. But I thought that all the Time Lords were killed off in the war? That's what the Doctor said."

Sparky nodded once, her eyes distant. "Well, up until a few months ago, that was true. You see, my parents left Gallifrey when the Daleks began attacking the Citadel. They went to earth and created a life for themselves. But then they were called back, and so my father returned to fight. But when they went to earth initially, they brought me, while I was still inside the loom—Time Lords can't reproduce naturally, they have to use machines—and when I was born, my mother put us both through the Chameleon Arch, which made us both human. Our Time Lord selves were contained in these pocket watches. A few months ago, I was going through the attic, and found mine." Her eyes were now glittering with tears. "Imagine, after growing up one way, discovering everything was a lie? And then, my mother had destroyed her watch, so that she would remain human. You see, my father died in the war, and she actually loved him. Usually, Time Lords just marry for convenience, but they were some of the few that actually married for love."

Rose reached out and grabbed the girl's hand. "I'm sorry, I really am. That must've been horrible. But how do you know all of this, if you were born after the war?"

The younger girl smiled. "There was this thing on Gallifrey, called the Matrix. Every deceased Time Lord's memories were put into it for future use. My father uploaded his memories into a version of it before returning to Gallifrey, and left them with my mother. I found them, and gained a lot of them...he was careful about which ones he left you see. I think he knew what my mother was going to do, and that I would need him one day. He left me everything about how to work a TARDIS, stuff about the universe. Things that I would need to know if Gallifrey was gone." She cleared her throat, and blinked away the tears, before briskly standing up. "Alright, so do you want to go back to your universe? 'Cause I'm sorry, this place might be nice and all, but it doesn't have that feeling of home."

Rose watched her for a moment. "You know that's impossible, yeah? You can't cross the void, it could collapse."

Sparky grinned at her brightly. "Well then, how did I get here? And anyway, this is Torchwood! I bet you have a bunch of stuff that could be used to help! Namely though, I think we need to find a place with a rift. Want to go to Cardiff?"

"Why you going to Cardiff?" Mickey asked from the door, holding a tray of tea.

"Because Mickey, I'm going home!" Sparky ran out past him, darting down the hall. "And I need transport to Wales, pronto!"

**NOTE: Remember, the first time that Gallifrey was ever mentioned in the New Series was in the Runaway Bride. Rose has never heard of it!**

**Also, this prologue is a bit of a teaser—I want to see if people are interested before continuing to write. I do have parts of this story written, but I am not going to upload the rest until I have finished most of it, which will likely occur during the summer. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

"So what exactly are you doing?" Rose asked, watching Sparky rapidly type into the computer attached to the rift manipulator. "I mean, d'you really think you can get back to the other universe without either collapsin'?"

Without looking up from her work, Sparky replied, her voice almost bored. "Oh it's not really a question of _if_ but a question of _how_. Right now, I'm trying to go through any rift activity within a thousand miles, see if I can see exactly what happened when I came through the void. If I can find a way to safely replicate that, then there shouldn't be a problem. However, it seems to be that when I got pulled through, this Torchwood and mine were manipulating the rift at about the same time. So I'm going to have to find a way to contact Jack. And also, since I came through in London, I'm going to have to assume the Rift here branches out to there...probably as a result of the void being punctured there. The rift must have spread out to it, attracted by all of the energy coming through. There must be a lot of energy for me to get pulled through; we might be able to harness that."

Rose nodded. "Well, after I got pulled across, the Doctor found a way to say good-bye to me. He said he burned a star up to do it," she said quietly. Then her expression grew worried. "He also said that it had been less then a day for him—for me it had been two months."

"Oh, time between the universes flows differently. Everything here is a bit more accelerated than back home. The planet is rotating faster, its going around the sun much quicker."

"The Doctor said something like that once...that he could feel everthin' in space."

"Yeah, pretty much. Its kind of disconcerting at first, but you get used to it," Sparky said lightly. "But anyway, if I can do this right, I can get us back closer to when I left, especially if I'm not here too long. Then this world won't have as great a pull on me, and I'll be able to reenter my timeline more smoothly. Hopefully no more than a few months though."

"When was it when you left?" Rose asked, wondering how long it had been in her world, when it had been nearly four years here.

"Oh, its 2007. Early 2007. Elections are coming up actually. There's this bloke named Harold Saxon running, everyone really likes him for some reason. Personally, he gives me the creeps. But yeah," she said, realizing that she was rambling. She finally looked up from the screen, observing Rose carefully. "Maybe a month back, this hospital disappeared in London. Everyone said it went to the moon. Jack had me look into it, and I found out it was the Judoon."

"Judoon on the moon?" Rose said doubtfully. "We've run into them a few times here, they're a bit thick."

Sparky smirked. "Yeah, well can't argue with that. But anyway, I found out that there was this guy there who apparently saved everyone. Wore a suit, had thick brown hair, real skinny."

"Sounds like the Doctor," Rose said carefully, wanting to hear more, but trying not to give away just how badly.

The other girl nodded, returning to her computer work. "Well according to Jack then, he must have regenerated since he last saw you guys on the Game Station. Apparently he used to be a tall guy with really big ears."

"Yeah, that was the old him. Before he regenerated," Rose said, thinking back to her first Doctor, the tall man who she had first seen the stars with.

"Yeah, I've heard some stories from Jack. Of course, they were edited though. He didn't want me getting any ideas and running off and doing something stupid."

Rose laughed. It was nice hearing about her old friend, especially from someone who could actually appreciate who he was. According to Sparky, no one but her and another Torchwood agent, Gwen Cooper, knew that Jack couldn't die; only Sparky knew his real past. "Well, considerin' all the dumb things he's done, at least he's lookin' out for you."

Sparky laughed too. "Yeah. Well he still does some pretty stupid things. Like playing with the rift to fix his vortex manipulator." Suddenly, Sparky froze, her fingers stilling over the keyboard. Her eyes were locked on straight in front of her, but Rose could see that her mind was going light-years per second. It was the same look the Doctor had whenever he had a sudden epiphany. "That's it!" She exclaimed so suddenly that Rose jumped, her hand flying off the other girl's shoulder. "Jack had hooked up his broken vortex manipulator to the rift, which caused it to reach out and envelop me since his manipulator couldn't handle all of that power...and then, because it _must_ be connected to this Torchwood, it sent me through the void safely. The rift must be like a pocket universe mixed up in the time vortex!" She looked at Rose excitedly, her expression almost manic. "I can hook up my vortex manipulator to the rift, and try to replicate the results! And since mine isn't broken, I'll be able to determine when and where we end up!"

Rose regarded her uncertainly. "Is it really that easy?"

Sparky shook her head quickly, returning to the computer. Her typing was even more intense now than it had been before. "Of course not. I still need to figure out how to safely connect my vortex manipulator to the rift, I have to figure out how to contact Jack, make sure that we're both on the exact same page, and get us safely across the rift at the right time. To be honest? I'll be happy being just a few months off of our target."

"Will it be that dangerous? You shouldn't have to risk yourself that way, you know. I'm sure that there are other things we could do," Rose said, staring at Sparky, aware of just how young she was, and how rare.

Sparky scoffed. "Rose, this is probably the safest way, and the way that'll involve the least interference from void stuff. And anyway, I can lock onto Jack's vortex manipulator also since it'll probably be the only one in his time stream. It may not be capable of traveling anywhere, but it still gives off a signal."

Rose looked at her thoughtfully. "You know, your manipulator looks different from his." It was true: Jack's had been big and heavy on technology, whereas Sparky's was simple. It was a gold band with what looked like a long, oval watch-face that had several odd symbols on it. Two buttons sat on either side of the watch-face, and a small hole was set on the opposite side of the face.

Sparky laughed. "That's because you humans tried to replicate technology that you had no right to; of course it would look messy. Mine's from Gallifrey, my dad left it to me along with my TARDIS. It's really called a harmonic shifter, since it drew its power from the Eye of Harmony, which was beneath the citadel."

"What's the Eye of Harmony?" Rose asked.

Sparky looked at her, surprised. "The Doctor never mentioned it? It was the source of power for all TARDIS's, allowed them to move through time and space. Basically though, it was a black hole that a Time Lord named Omega figured out how to manipulate so that the Time Lords could travel in time."

"There was a black hole underneath a city?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but...Rassilon, I think? He put it into balance with Gallifrey so that it could stay safely beneath the planet's surface without beginning to pull everything in. I'm really not that sure though; the Time Lords weren't the best at keeping up with their own history. It could have been him or Omega, not really sure," Sparky said casually, focused more on her work than on what she was saying.

"You know, I think I've heard the Doctor say something about Rassilon once or twice," Rose mused. "Who was he?"

Spark's face darkened slightly. "He's the one who made the Time Lords as strong as they were. He helped give them the ability to travel through time, and was the first Lord President of Gallifrey. However, beyond that, it's impossible to know for sure. My father worked with the matrix to maintain the memories of old Time Lords, and he found that a lot of what was believed to have been done by Rassilon was really just propaganda. While most of my kind insisted that he was a benevolent ruler, others said that he was an opportunist, a bit of a tyrant." She sighed, her green eyes possessing a sense of weariness that Rose had sometimes seen in the Doctor's eyes. "A lot of things about the Time Lords are much darker than they appear once you begin to really look."

Rose nodded slightly. "I kind of saw that sometimes, with the Doctor. When he talked about that Time War, I always thought there must have been more than just the Daleks he was trying to get rid of." The young Time Lady's eyes darkened even more, becoming almost menacing. Before she could speak however, Mickey came bursting into the room.

"You know, this lot doesn't really appreciate you kicking them out of their own base," he remarked, looking like he needed a large glass of coffee or a beer. "They just finished demanding that I tell them what's going on, or that they'll report it to Torchwood One."

Rose scoffed. "Oh, so they're goin' to complain right to Pete Tyler. That'll go over well," she said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well that's what I told them, and they didn't seem too happy." He sunk down into one of the swivel chairs by the computer station Sparky had commandeered. "All I'm sayin' is to be prepared for a bunch of moody mad scientists. I swear, no wonder we chucked this lot off to Cardiff, they're all insane!"

Sparky scoffed. "Yes, and wouldn't you also consider the Doctor insane? They're obviously smart enough and concerned enough to deal with the rift; believe, from what I saw in my universe, it's a full time occupation." Mickey looked sheepishly at her as he shrugged.

Rose sighed. "Well, hopefully we'll all get along well enough in close quarters."

* * *

><p>"Why am I meeting your family again?" Sparky mumbled as Rose pulled up to the Tyler Estate. "I'm bad with people, and from what Mickey told me about your mom, I don't really think she'll care for me much." She looked nervous, a trait Rose had never seen in the teenager.<p>

Rose shot a glare at Mickey, who shrugged. "Well, considerin' the welcome she gave the Doctor, I thought it was best for her to be prepared."

Sparky leaned back into the seat, as if she was trying to go through it. "Yeah, please do warn me of any imminent slaps, please." She shuddered. "Meeting other people's families has never really gone well for me, even when I was human. The parents would always begin comparing me to their kids, and trying to figure out why I could be so successful academically while still doing other sports and clubs and stuff, and then my friends would get annoyed. That or the parents were upset that their kid wasn't the freaking perfect center of the universe," she added in disgust, shaking her head.

Mickey laughed. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that from Jackie. She knows Rose isn't perfect." He smirked as he ducked a swipe from Rose. "Nah, she'll probably just fuss over why someone your age is working with us; that or freak out 'cause you're an alien."

Sparky closed her eyes and groaned. "Well, let's hope it's the former then."

Rose sighed. "My mum isn't that bad, and anyway, she probably won't assume you kidnapped me and are doing experiments to my poor, vulnerable self."

Sparky, who had been tiredly rubbing her eyes, paused and stared at her. "What, she thought the Doctor kidnapped you to probe you and have alien babies?" Mortified, Rose nodded. To her chagrin, Sparky began laughing. "Does she know that Time Lords are sterile? That's why we used machines to have children! That, and the fact that most of us were asexual."

Mickey froze as Rose blushed even more. "Are you saying the Doctor doesn't even...do it? I mean, could he even if he wanted to?" he demanded.

Sparky looked uncomfortable now, the subject apparently crossing her comfort zone. "I'm sure he could if he wanted to, but our species didn't really get...aroused like you humans do. We were much more controlled. But honestly, I'm only seventeen; I don't really have much experience with all of this."

"Okay, well here we are!" Rose said loudly, ending the conversation. "The Tyler Estate." As they all got out of the car, an older, blonde woman ran out, wearing a simple outfit of jeans and a sweater.

"Rose!" she exclaimed, bringing her daughter into a hug. "Oh, it's so nice to see you! I can't imagine what you would want to be doing in Cardiff, but no matter, you're home now!"

"It's nice to see you too Mum," Rose said softly, pulling away from her mother. "But, well, we're only going to be here for a bit. We're going back to Cardiff tomorrow."

Both Sparky and Mickey winced at the look Jackie Tyler gave her oldest child. "What do you mean you're going back to Cardiff? You work for Torchwood here, in London!"

"Um, excuse me, Mrs. Tyler?" Sparky said uncertainly, stepping forward to save Rose from her mother's ire. "We're there doing an experiment with rift energy, and how it could get us home, or at least me, if Rose and Mickey want to stay."

Jackie stared at her. "So you're the girl who just appeared, aren't you? Pete told me about you." Sparky nodded carefully. "Well you should know that the Doctor went through hell to close the void, same as my daughter, so you be careful!"

Sparky nodded, looking slightly shocked at how Jackie defended the Doctor. "Of course I will, I don't want to damage the void at all. If I did both universes could collapse and it would all have been pointless anyway. Or, as we're trying to pass over rather unconventionally, the rift could explode, destroy the time vortex and..." she winced slightly. "Let's just say for similar reasons as to why the Doctor blew up his home planet."

Jackie just stared at her. "He what?"

Sparky looked panicked for a moment. "Oh, uh, well, there was a war, and well, bad stuff was happening. I wasn't there so I can't say for certain, but I know that some Time Lords were planning something that would harm the time vortex. So, the Doctor blew up his planet and saved the universe."

Jackie just stared at her for a long moment, attempting to understand what she said. After a long moment she sighed. "Well, let's go inside and have some tea."


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Rose demanded. "I'm not going to let you do this if there's a chance you'll get stuck in the void."

Sparky rolled her eyes. "I'm just sending a projection of myself across, so honestly, it is pretty much risk free. And since I'm a Time Lady and my mental capacities are rather impressive, there's basically no chance I could get trapped in between worlds."

Still unsure, Rose just stared at her.

After about a month of configuring the technology she had access to, Sparky had created a system that would allow them to send projections of themselves across the void, so that they would be able to communicate with Jack and align the use of the rift energy. Though Sparky had assured Rose that there was no chance of harm, she was still hesitant, which lead to their current argument.

Sighing, the younger blonde patted Rose on the shoulder. "Honestly Rose, do you think I would risk my brain for fun? I'm certain that this will work, okay? I've been telling you this for days now, you really should believe me." After a long moment, Rose nodded.

Sparky pointed her finger at the appropriate button. "Press that one," she whispered, standing underneath the beam. Rose obliged, and a bright light filled Sparky's vision. Then she was observing a dark room, which almost looked like a sewer.

Sparky frowned and carefully began to walk forward mentally, knowing her body was paralyzed back on parallel earth. Hearing faint voices, she slipped through the tunnel, coming to a large room filled with odd pig-people and humans, all standing in front of large pepper-pot shaped robots.

Sparky's eyes narrowed. What were Daleks doing here, wherever here was? Looking at her harmonic shifter, she knew she was on earth, in roughly 1930. She obviously had missed the mark, and would have to return back to her body to recalibrate the coordinates. Staying near the wall she moved forward, knowing that although she was very indistinct, she _was _noticeable. She really didn't want to know what would happen if she was shot in this form. Hopefully her long black coat would help her blend into the shadows, though she really wasn't sure about the green converse she was sporting.

In front of her, a black Dalek was smoking profusely, while the other Daleks began to rant about the 'final experiment.' Just as a dark-toned girl began to step forward, Sparky impulsively made the first move to prevent the human from doing something stupid.

"So you combined a Dalek and a human together? Well, I'm sorry, but that seems kind of stupid. Humans adapt much more easily than Daleks do; the human nature will prevail. And don't mind me asking, but aren't you lot supposed to be in the void right now?" She stepped forward, seeing everyone swivel to see the newcomer. She saw a man behind the black girl wearing a blue suit staring at her in confusion, while everyone else seemed to regard her as a ghost.

"Explain," one Dalek droned. It moved forward, its eye stalk regarding her imperiously.

"Pretty simple question, I think. I have it on good authority that you lot were sucked into the void in, oh, seventy-six years or so in the future? 'Cause you're all part of the Cult of Skaro, right?"

"Identify yourself human," one Dalek demanded.

Another seemed to scan her. "Human appears to be hologram. Tracing source."

"Oh doubt you'll be able to do that," Sparky said pleasantly. "I mean, it took me over a month just to figure out how to project myself, and I missed! I mean, where are we anyway?"

The girl who had been about to speak earlier stepped forward. It was obvious that she wasn't from this time—she was wearing a red leather jacket and jeans. "New York City," she said uncertainly.

Sparky frowned. "Oh, I was hoping you would at least say London. Damn, I'm a whole continent off. Oh, seems like whatever's cooking in there is about done," she observed nonchalantly.

It was true. The black armor came apart, and out stepped a cross between a Dalek and a human. Sparky frowned at it, slightly disgusted at the human/Dalek.

In Dalek Sec's declaration on the supremacy of the Dalek Race, the other man carefully regarded Sparky. He held up a radio, and then pointed behind him. Sparky nodded, understanding.

After distracting the Daleks with the radio, everyone began to run. Sparky followed the two time travelers through the tunnels until they were in the streets of New York City.

"Who are you," he asked suddenly, locking his intense gaze on the young girl.

"No, who are you? I want to know who I'm following before I tell you anything about me," Sparky replied tightly.

"I'm Martha, and this is the Doctor. It's alright; we're not here to do anything bad." Martha seemed intent on not allowing a fight to occur, sensing the stubbornness of the two people beside her.

"I'm a friend of a friend. Anyway, do you know what the date is in Martha's time stream?" Sparky asked evasively.

"Who's my friend?" The Doctor asked, frustrated.

Sparky smirked. "Oh, just a faraway rose." She looked down at her harmonic shifter_,_ before realizing she was blinking out. "Oops, powers running low. I'll have to work on that," she said, waving goodbye.

"No, wait, please!" The Doctor exclaimed desperately. But it was too late, she was gone. He stared at the place she had been in, hope warring with pain in his eyes. The strength of the emotions made Martha almost afraid to ask what the girl had meant.

"Doctor?" she asked carefully.

The Doctor snapped out of his thoughts. "Alright, we've got to get to Hooverville and warn everyone that the Daleks are coming. And then, well hopefully she was right," he muttered, racing off and leaving Martha no choice but to follow.

Later, when they returned to the Tardis, Martha decided to breach the subject again. Any information she could glean from this man, she would take. She walked over to him as he set the coordinates.

"Okay, London, earth, 2007," he said, running around the console.

Ignoring the fact that he was taking her home, she questioned the Doctor. "Who did she mean by Rose? Your Rose?"

The Doctor closed his eyes. "It would seem so. Somehow, that girl knows Rose, and it seems that she found a way to send a hologram across from the parallel universe."

Back at her Torchwood, Sparky gasped as she returned to her body. "A bit moody, your Doctor," she gasped, tumbling forward. Rose caught her and helped her into a seat.

"You saw the Doctor?" she questioned. Her eyes were staring intently at Sparky, who was just trying to keep her eyes open.

"Yeah, we were off by a bit. Landed in New York City, 1930. He was there with this other girl, Martha. They were trying to get away from the Daleks."

Rose hissed "There were Daleks in New York? How?"

Sparky understood her anger. How did the Daleks always survive, when she was trapped in a parallel world? Sparky shared the sentiments. The Daleks lived on while she had lost her most of her family, her planet, her inheritance. In her mind, they should have been long-since gone, a legend alongside the Time Lords. But she also knew that they were still around for a reason—something was going to happen that they were involved in that would change the universe. She didn't know what, but she felt it every time she thought of them.

"Emergency temporal shift...the same way they escaped the time war. They left Torchwood tower and got stuck in 1930, in New York City. They were trying some sort of experiment...splicing human and Dalek DNA together." Sparky looked thoughtful. "You know, I hope it actually works out. Dalek Sec looked more human than Dalek, and the human genes would have likely overridden the Dalek ones."

"Well, that's an experiment I won't be helpin' you one," Rose said darkly. "But what were you sayin' about the Doctor?"

"Well he seemed in a right state. Not sure if I've ever seen anyone so grumpy, though Owen Harper could give him a run for his money," Sparky said contemplatively. "But yeah, he was really moody. Even for a British person..." she added with a smirk, ducking as Rose went to swipe her head.

"Well yeah, the Doctor could be a little moody sometimes. But he never was that bad...he always had a light in his eyes, at least in this regeneration," Rose said nostalgically.

"Well then maybe you should go get your eyes checked. 'Cause all I saw there was a grumpy dude in a blue suit and brown coat that _really_ didn't match. I mean, yeah, it's an improvement from all the cloaks and neck pieces that the Time Lords normally wore, but still. _And _he had on red converses! Red!" Sparky rolled her eyes. "Nobody does that except the people trying to get attention."

Rose smirked a little. "Well, it's not like the Doctor tried to blend in. Always getting' right into the middle of things. And what exactly are you talking about, wearing those shoes?"

Sparky laughed, wiggling her bright green shoes. "You can't judge my shoe choice, seeing as how these are the only ones I have. As for the Doctor, I would say that it's a Time Lord thing, except they always learned on Gallifrey to not interfere. It really was only the rogues who were ever curious and wanted to be involved...though most, from what little I know, usually weren't acting on the best of intention."

Rose frowned. "Really? I mean, I know you said that the Time Lords weren't as great as they seemed, but I can't imagine anyone like the Doctor out to really cause harm."

Sparky frowned at her. "The Doctor was considered an oddity, Rose, not the norm. The only reason he first went to earth was because he stole the TARDIS and was exiled there, and later he was exiled again for interfering with the events of other species and forced to regenerate. But at least he was good, compared to the Rani, or the Master, or Morbius or Borusa," she said contemplatively. "A lot of the rebel Time Lords decided to take advantage of their status and wreak havoc on the rest of the universe."

Rose stared at her. "That's sounds kind of like the Daleks."

Sparky shot her a cold smile. "When you have as much power as the Time Lords did, imagine what that would do to some of them. You humans created the atomic bomb, so you had to use it against an enemy who couldn't hope to match it, just to show your strength and end a war on your terms. You have the internet, and online accounts, and so some humans take advantage of their ability to steal other's money. Some countries have so much wealth, and resources and medicine, and yet you don't share much of it other than to send 'relief' to nations who have nothing compared to yours. You give out power, and no matter what, there will be some who clamor to abuse it, and some who refuse to share it." There was something bitter in her voice that told Rose that there was more to Sparky's words than she was letting on.

"What happened?" Rose asked gently. Sparky looked up at her, her exhausted eyes filled with some unknown emotion.

"I'm just so tired Rose, so tired. Even when I was human, I saw the greed of so many people. I mean, I was a total history geek back then, but the one thing that always disturbed me was that some people have power who shouldn't. When I went back to being a time lord, I thought I would see a better history, but instead, I saw one almost the same." Sparky sighed a little. "I guess I saw the world for what it was, a little too soon. But we all have to grow up eventually." Rose stared at her for a long moment. Then she bent down to look her in the eyes, and gave her a wide grin.

"Never."


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

"I bloody hate those fob watches!" Sparky growled angrily. She was standing with Rose, who was accompanying her for the first time on their attempts to locate Jack. In front of them, a dance was occurring, and they were hiding behind the curtains of the stage. Both were following the movements of one couple specifically, though Sparky found her eyes drawn to an odd little girl sitting alone.

"Do you mean...the Doctor's made himself human?" Rose asked quietly, her eyes stuck to the man she was trying to hard to return to. He seemed to be enjoying himself, with the arms of another woman around him.

"Yeah, unfortunately. And that means that he has absolutely no idea that he's a Time Lord, or of anything that happened while he was one. He thinks he's a human, with fake human memories and desires," Sparky said darkly. "Which means he's of no help to us." She looked down at her harmonic shifter, and her eyes widened. "Oh, looks like Mickey followed through," she said, her voice completely different now, excited.

Before Rose could ask what she was talking about, Sparky grabbed her hand and pressed a button on her watch. Instantly, both of them collapsed, solidly there.

Rose gasped. "What just happened?" She looked around to see if anyone had noticed them, but it seemed that they hadn't.

Sparky grinned wolfishly. "Power surge. A solar flare was coming up, and I had Mickey let the rift manipulator absorb it to give us a bit more power."

"So we're back now? Or is there a catch?" Rose asked uncertainly. Of course she would be elated to be back here, back with her Doctor, but she would never even get the chance to say goodbye to her Mum now, or her new little brother Tony.

Sparky rolled her eyes. "Of course there's a catch. We can only stay for awhile like this because of the amount of power needed. We're still just projections; I simply solidified us. If I made it so that we were here, we would get pulled into the void if I didn't close it right away, and 1913 doesn't exactly have the best technology to accommodate doing that."

"Why would we get pulled back in? When the Doctor and I—"

"You were in the TARDIS which protected you, and then at Canary Wharf, the void was closed anyway by the time it would have pulled you back in. I have to open the void to send us here, that's why I needed such a large energy surge," the younger blonde explained. Then she frowned. "Oh, seems we've been noticed."

"Who are you two, and why are you dressed so outlandishly?" The woman who had been dancing with the human-Doctor asked.

"Um, you know. Just some travelers passing through. Our trunks got stolen, so we had to borrow my cousin's clothes. He's down at the pub right now," Sparky replied, adopting a British accent to try and blend in. At the woman's steely glare, she hurried to continue. "I'm Ann Jones, and this is my cousin Rose Tyler."

"Ann Jones?" Rose muttered quietly so that only Sparky could hear. The Time Lady just shot her a firm _shut up_ glance, and looked back to the lady affronting them for their information.

"Well, I'm pleased to meet you then, Miss Jones and Miss Tyler. I'm sorry that you had such a misfortune. My name is Joan Redfern; I'm the nurse at the school," she replied politely, losing some of her frost towards the two travelers. "Why don't you come meet Professor Smith? He just went to go fetch drinks."

Rose's eyes widened. "Oh, that's not really necessary," she said firmly but politely. "We're just here to get away from our cousin; he's been in a rather foul mood since our luggage got stolen."

Sparky shot her a glance, raising her eyes. So Rose was avoiding the Doctor? Or was she avoiding the idea of a human Doctor with this Redfern woman? Rose shot her a look back, but to no avail. Deciding that she wasn't going to let Rose miss this opportunity, she shook her head.

"If it wouldn't be a problem, we would be delighted. It's always nice to meet new people," Sparky cheerfully said. The nurse looked between the two of them, confused, and then adopted a polite smile.

"It would my pleasure," she said, not quite pleasant, but still attempting it. She gave Rose a confused look, before leading them over to the human doctor. "You know, there is another Miss Jones; she works at the school as a maid. She came with Professor Smith, since she had worked for his family previously."

"Really? Maybe we're related," Sparky joked. However, Rose had caught the sharp look in her eyes when the nurse had mentioned the maid's name.

Nurse Redfern shook her head. "I doubt it, unless you happen to of African descent."

"What's wrong with that, then? I don't see why being something other than white is a big deal," Rose said defensively; she had made similar arguments in the past for Mickey.

"Ah, now I'm sure Nurse Redfern didn't mean anything like that," a familiar voice retorted amiably. Both travelers spun around, coming face to face with the human Doctor, Professor Smith.

"Ah, John, these two girls have been traveling with their cousin. This is Miss Jones, and this is Miss Tyler," Redfern said, gesturing to the two girls. As soon as she pointed out Rose, Smith's eyes widened. He seemed to think she was a ghost at first, as he blinked and shook his head quickly. Then, realizing his mistake, he molded his face into a polite smile.

"Very nice to meet you both. May I ask what happened to your clothes?" He asked carefully, his eyes straying to Rose every few seconds.

"Ah, our trunks were stolen, so we were stuck wearing our cousin's clothes. I'm sorry that we are so out of place; we just wanted to see what was going on," Sparky said respectfully, with a nod.

Smith nodded. Then he turned to Rose. "I'm so sorry Miss Tyler, but have we met? You seem very familiar," he said, seemingly giving up trying to not focus on her.

"You drew her, in your journal," Nurse Redfern reminded him. "Or at least, someone who looks very similar to her."

Rose blinked. "Really? Me? Well, I'm sure I would remember you Professor. But I'm sorry to say that I don't think we have." Her voice was very careful as she said it, knowing from the looks Sparky gave her that she couldn't try to remind him.

"Well, yes, of course. My mistake," he said humbly. Rose blinked, sure she had never heard that tone before from the Doctor. He really must have changed himself to lose his over inflated ego, she thought. "But, would you care for a dance? I'm sure you would have had many suitors already if you didn't have the misfortune of you things being stolen."

Rose stared at him, flustered, as Sparky's eyes rose at the obvious move he was making. He wanted to get her alone to figure out where he knew her from. Redfern, it seemed, thought differently. "Oh, how kind of you John. Miss Jones and I will—"

"Doctor!" a voice rang out. A dark girl in a maid's uniform rushed towards them. "Doctor, we need to leave now!" Only after her declaration did she notice the group surrounding him. When her eyes settled on Sparky, they widened. "You!" she exclaimed.

Sparky didn't look up at first, focused on the young girl whose face suddenly changed to dark triumph. "Hmm?" she asked, before looking up. "Oh, Martha! Hello! Did he drag you along with him?"

Martha nodded, her eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"

Sparky shrugged good naturedly, her gaze wandering over to the girl briefly again. "I was trying to get back to my friend again, and ended up here. At least I'm on the right continent, huh?" Then her eyes narrowed. "Or, _you_ were on the right continent."

"Her? What are you talking about?" Rose said swiftly, looking at her friend as if she had grown two heads.

Sparky turned to her, and explained in a fervent undertone. "We had to use something to stabilize our way over here, remember? We used your TARDIS key, and we ended up at a place where I'm guessing the TARDIS is nearby?" She looked to Martha, who nodded with wide eyes. "So I'm not totally off the mark, we're just getting pulled across to places the Tardis is, while its on earth at least. I have that much control over it."

Smith and Redfern were staring at the three girls in confusion, but Martha put a voice to it. "Who are you two, really?"

"Well, like I said before, I'm a friend of Rose," Sparky said airily, gesturing to her friend. Martha gasped.

"Your Rose? _The_ Rose? The one that the Doctor lost?" She seemed more shocked by this revelation than anything else.

"He talks about me?" Rose asked, surprised. She knew that the Doctor had said that he wouldn't just forget about her, but she really hadn't been sure if she believed him.

"He barely shuts up about you," Martha replied, smiling at the blonde's shock, despite her previous dislike of her.

Before anyone could reply though, the doors slammed open, and three people with guns walked in. Sparky immediately grabbed Rose and pulled her back, her hand going to her pocket.

"We will have silence!" the boy ordered, striding forward with his gun.

As chaos ensued, Sparky tried to fiddle with her shifter, obviously trying to pull them back. "No, we can't just leave these people!" Rose snapped.

"Well, it's not like we're really meant to be here! And we're just projections, for as long as I can keep the link up. What do you think we'll be able to do?" Sparky whispered fiercely. Rose's eyes widened as she took this in, and she let go of Sparky's wrist. At this point, both Martha and the nurse had been grabbed, guns held to their heads, while the newcomers taunted Mr. Smith.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Rose asked fervently, not wanting to let a bloodbath occur. Sparky glanced at her briefly, and then sighed.

"I suppose we can do a bit," she said warily, pulling a gun out of her jacket. "Hey, maybe you should put those away," she yelled casually, raising her gun to point it at the little girl. The three newcomers froze, staring at her in disbelief.

"We will shoot," the boy threatened.

"So will I," Sparky shrugged, glaring at him. The distraction seemed to be all Martha needed, for she twisted out of her captor's grasp, grabbed the gun that had been pointed at her and was now aimed at her assailant. "And so will she, I'm guessing. Now, I've got a good deal of experience with weapons, but Martha over there? She's probably scared. Scared and holding a gun. One of the worst things possible for you right now."

The Family glared at her darkly. "Who are you really?" The teenager asked. "Neither of you are truly in this world, and yet you are able to interact with it as if you were."

"Oh buddy, I may be a projection, but I can still do a lot," Sparky drawled, shooting her gun up in the air, raising her eyes. Then her eyes drifted to her shifter, and they widened. "Oops, well seems that that used up what energy we had." She began fiddling with buttons on her wrist. "Well, Martha, it seems like you've got this covered. I hope we'll see you around!" And with that, the two inter-dimensional travelers vanished.

"Sparky, recharge the shifter and take us back! We have to help them!" Rose demanded as they both struggled to stand up, once more in their bodies.

"Rose, there really isn't much I can do. Anyway, it'll take at least five days to recharge my shifter, and that's about one day in that universe. By the time we got back, it would be too late to do anything anyway. Now, I suggest that you go get something to eat, you look like you're going to pass out," Sparky said shortly to Rose, who indeed did look very pale.

"What happened?" Mickey asked, running over to them. "Did you see the Doctor?" Both girls nodded. "Rose, when you go back again, you're going to have to warn him."

"Warn him about what?" Rose asked, leaning against a desk. She was shaking slightly from the strain of mentally traveling to the other universe.

"The stars." Sparky and Rose looked at him sharply. "More of them. They're going out, and we don't know how to stop it!"

Martha carefully watched the Doctor as he moved around the console after saying goodbye to Timothy. She wasn't sure exactly how much he remembered of his time as a human and how he would react to it now that he was himself again. He seemed morose, but that could have just been because of what had happened between him and Joan, and what the Family had done and forced him in turn to do.

"Doctor?" She asked hesitantly. He looked up at her wearily. "How much do you remember?"

"Oh, bit and pieces, it's all a bit blurry. How you humans cope, really, I'll never understand," he said, shaking his head with mock solemnity, turning back to the controls.

Martha bit her lip and nodded. "Do you remember meeting Rose?" she asked gently, knowing that this could hurt him even more than having to break Joan's heart.

His head snapped up. "What?" he demanded, striding over to her. "What about Rose?"

Martha swallowed. "Well, at the dance, before the family showed up, these two girls just suddenly...appeared, I guess. One of them was the girl from New York, and the other introduced herself as Rose." The Doctor took several steps back, but was still staring at Martha intently. "They were talking with you and the Matron for a few minutes before I came over. The one girl, she wouldn't give her name, said that she was trying to get them back to this universe, to find a friend of hers in Cardiff, and that she had been using Rose's TARDIS key as a stabilizer, or something."

The Doctors eyes widened. "Of course!" he exclaimed, his hands running through his hair. "Why didn't I think of that?" He sprinted over to the console, and began typing something it, staring at the monitor intently.

"Think of what, Doctor? What's going on?" Martha asked, slowing moving towards him. Sure, she had seen him manic like this before, but rarely with the full array of emotions warring in his eyes.

Sparky sat at her desk, deep within the bowels of Torchwood Three in Cardiff. Surrounding her were three monitors, tracking the rift, the void, and the space around the planet for irregularities. She was clad in sweats and a green, fluffy bath robe, and was clutching a cup of black coffee. The circles under her eyes betrayed how tired she was, as she tried to let the rich, bitter taste of the coffee jolt her senses, so that she could make it to the end of her shift without passing out.

"Superior Time Lord physiology, yeah right," she muttered, sifting through the memories her father had left her, many of which explained the 'wonders' of the body of the Time Lord. None had really mentioned how mortal a Time Lord was before they regenerated for the first time. Nope, it seemed that she had to figure that out on her own.

Suddenly, a beeping noise jolted her out of her cynical ponderings. Some type of signal was making its way through the void. Eyes widening, Sparky swiftly began typing, trying to open up her side of the connection so that she could see the transmission.

A familiar face appeared on the screen. "Ah, hello there! I must say, am I pleased to see you!" Sparky just continued to stare at him unblinkingly, her features frozen in shock. "Oh, well," The Doctor said, before clearing his throat. "Thank you for opening the connection over there, this probably wouldn't have gone through otherwise." Sparky nodded mutely. The Doctor frowned at her in bemusement. "Well, you seem rather surprised. Martha told me that you were using a TARDIS key as a stabilizer to get between worlds—rather ingenious, that—and I thought I would use the TARDIS to try and open the connection!"

His glee seemed to melt Sparky's shock. She cleared her throat and nodded. "Not that I'm not impressed that you were able to do that, but I trust you aren't endangering the two universes by opening this link?" she asked him sternly.

He seemed to wilt a little under her stern gaze. "Well, it can't be much worse than what you're doing; honestly, I'm just following the trace of the key from my universe to yours, so however you've been traveling is how this transmission is going through."

Sparky looked relieved. "Okay, good. You have no idea of how pissed I'd be if the universe collapsed after all I've done to prevent that from happening."

The Doctor nodded, seemingly distracted. Sparky smirked, recognizing the mood swings that Mickey always attributed to the Doctor. "Well, not to say this conversation hasn't been pleasant, but is—"

"Rose isn't here; she's in Paris on a mission for Torchwood with Jake. Mickey and I have been holding up the fort here," Sparky interjected softly. "I'm sorry, but Sontarans invaded there, and we didn't think we would be able to make contact with your universe for at least another two days."

A deep disappointment filled his eyes for a brief moment. Before he could reply though, the cell phone in front of Sparky began to vibrate. "One sec'," she said, holding up a finger. "Oh, hey Jake...no! The probic vent is at the base of their neck, if you hit that, they'll be out...no, of course I haven't noticed, I'm not exactly above ground, am I? Yeah, I'm still here, and Mickey's in the other lab room, he's charting the progression of the stars...she what? No, you tell Rose to come back; Sontarans aren't exactly the best at compromise...ah, okay, well tell her if that's how she's going to be...oh good, she actually listened?" The Doctor, who had looked concerned, became confused as Sparky began to laugh, almost hysterically. "She got the potato-head with a potato? Oh that's perfect, absolutely perfect. Just tell her to finish up fast; I've got a surprise for her."

"What exactly is going on?" The Doctor asked apprehensively.

"Oh, the Sontarans have been taking old Cybermen technology to use in their war, and they've been testing it out on innocent people," Sparky said lazily, searching for something. "Be right back," she said, pushing a button on her watch and disappearing. Before the Doctor could react, she was back, looking relatively singed.

Next to her was an equally singed Jake, and what looked like a Sontaran communicator. "Let's see if I can reverse the signal," she muttered, hooking it up to what looked like an iPod. After typing on the touch screen for a moment, a green light blared on the communicator, and she grinned. "There we go, all done."

Jake nodded, wincing slightly as he moved to the screen. "There's a person on your computer," he noted, and then his eyes widened. "Blimey, its you Doctor! Too bad Rose had to be an idiot, or she could have come and seen you!"

"What happened to her? Where's Rose?" the Doctor asked urgently, panic filling his tone.

Jake rolled her eyes. "Well what do you think? She was trying to come up with a peaceful solution. Sayin' that the Sontarans could take the technology if they left earth alone. Course, they didn't like that much. So she took a potato gun that some students had dropped and just started layin' them on them, until the decided to leave the crazy girl alone and let her and their commander talk politics."

Sparky laughed. "I really just wanted to see it with my own eyes, but when I showed up, I was in the way of the ship leaving, and Jake and I...well we were in the way." She shrugged with a grin. "But I hacked into their communications field to make sure no other ship was going to sneak into this system while Rose was compromising."

Nodding, the Doctor let her finish. "Alright then, answer me this: who are you?" He asked, letting every 900 years of his life shine through his eyes.

She smiled at him. "Well, I've done a good job of having everyone here call me by a nickname, so I guess I'll share that with you as well, unless you want to tell me _your_ real name, Lord Doctor." The Doctor looked at her in shock, but she continued. "I guess you could call me Sparky." Her phone vibrated, and she bit her lip as she read the text. "And there's Pete requesting my presence. I should go. And Doctor," she said seriously. "I am trying to get her back to you. It's just going to take some time."

Before the Doctor could reply, she vanished again with a faint 'pop.' Jake just grinned. "And that's Sparky for you. Real heartfelt message, and then she hightails it out of there."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm sorry that this took so long. This originally was supposed to be two chapters, but the beginning just wasn't working for me, so I decided to combine them. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Martha wasn't exactly sure what had happened in the fifteen minutes she had been in the kitchen, making a strong cup of tea for herself. With the manic energy the Doctor was emitting, running around the console room, practically clothed in wires, she had a feeling she would need the caffeine from the tea.<p>

So when she returned to the console room, fully prepared for the maelstrom that was the Doctor in this kind of mood, she paused for a long moment, taking all of the action in.

Or should she say lack of action?

The Doctor was sitting in the pilot seat, in front of the monitor, looking at the blank screen like someone had just kicked a puppy. It was a sharp contrast to the frantic look on his face from before, and made it easily apparent that, whatever had happened while she was gone, didn't go the way the Doctor had wanted.

"Doctor?" Martha asked quietly.

He jumped, and quickly turned to look at her, a grin forcing itself onto his face. "Ah Martha, there you are!" he exclaimed, quickly standing up and spinning around the console. "We're back at your flat in London, and it's only been—"

"What happened?" Martha interrupted, ignoring the panic building up inside of her. He had actually brought her home this time. Could it mean that she would never see this wonderful man again? "And don't even think of lying to me, mister. You were happy as could be just fifteen minutes ago and now you look like someone stole your puppy."

The Doctor opened his mouth quickly, and then shut it again, his expression dark for a moment. Then it immediately cleared, and he frowned at her. "You know, I've never understood what that expression meant," he began, stalling. Martha's glare seemed to freeze any brain activity though, and he slumped down into the jump seat. "I was able to contact that girl from New York—Sparky—and talk to her for a moment."

Martha grinned. "That's great! Why are you so—wait, Sparky? Is that seriously her name?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It's probably just a nickname she came up with to seem more anonymous."

Martha laughed. "What, like 'the Doctor?'?"

The Doctor frowned at her. "I'll let you know that the Doctor is a perfectly fine name. Nothing wrong with it at all." Martha just grinned at him for a moment. He sighed. "Anyway, I was able to talk to her for a moment, but Rose wasn't there. Apparently there was some sort of invasion going on in that alternate Paris and she had to go there to sort things out." He looked down at the console. "Rose Tyler: Defender of the Earth, living the life I never could."

Martha frowned at him, something she seemed to be doing a lot lately. He seemed oddly wistful, though she had never heard anything but condemnation of the slow life normal people led. But she followed him out of the TARDIS, back into her own normal life on earth.

* * *

><p>"Okay, I have a trace on the TARDIS," Sparky said, her voice slightly uncertain. She ran her hand through her hair, staring at the computer screen.<p>

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Rose asked, frowning at her friend.

"Yes, well usually. Except it isn't on earth. Or in a time that would be safe to travel to." Seeing Rose's confusion, she clarified. "It's _impossibly_ far into the future. I don't think the Time Lords themselves even traveled that far, until now, I guess."

"Trust the Doctor to be the one that does, then," Rose said with a smirk. Sparky didn't smile though; her face was still staring at the screen in worry. "Okay, what's really the matter?"

Sparky bit her lip, thinking, and Rose was surprised. Sparky had a tendency to act very facetious with the world around her, almost being flippant, but now she seemed genuinely worried about something, instead of giving off a show of bravado.

"I'm sorry Rose, I just don't feel comfortable about this," Sparky said regretfully. "It just...something feels wrong about this." She bit her lip, staring at the screen with the coordinates of their apparent destination.

Rose was also staring at the screen. "I can understand why you're concerned about the year, but I don't get why it scares you."

Sparky rolled her eyes, recognizing the bait Rose was trying to set. "That's not what scares me at all. It's just that I can feel something whenever I think about us going there, or even me going there alone."

Rose raised her eyes. "What about me going alone?"

Before she could continue, Sparky immediately ended that train of thought. "Out of the question," she said sharply. "Your mind can't handle crossing the void without mine being there to guide it. And don't even start anything about you trying. Your mind would be shredded." There was no room for argument in her tone, and though Rose chaffed a little at being talked down to by someone six years younger than her, she knew she was right.

"How bad is this feeling you have?" Rose asked quietly. "If it isn't screaming 'death,' you know we have to try and go to warn the Doctor. He's the only one who can stop the stars from going out."

Sparky closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I know," she whispered. Rose let her have a moment, knowing that she was extending her senses to what was, and what could be, to try and discover how large of a danger they would be in. "I can't tell what's going to happen, but is won't kill us, especially since we're projections."

Rose's eyes widened and then narrowed. "That's right! What were you worried about? Nothing can touch us!"

Sparky began powering up the Dimensional Projector, or the 'brain cannon' as Mickey and Jake had dubbed it. "If the link is severed with your mind there and your body here, it would be like death, only you couldn't die. Your body would become a vegetable and eventually wither away, but your mind would be stuck there, without a body, atoms of consciousness floating in the wind. Or, if your mind was killed there, which could happen, much the same would happen to your body." All of this she said nonchalantly, as if it were the obvious answer to a simple question, no more important than if Rose had asked what 2x2 was.

Rose paled as she realized the implications of what Sparky said. The teenager looked over at her, eyes challenging. "You wanted to go so badly, so don't you say anything," she warned.

Rose nodded. "No, I still want to go," she said slowly. "You just surprised me, that's all."

Sparky raised an eye. "Well then, ready to go?" she gestured to the area where the projector would send them across the void. Rose nodded and stepped over to the designated area, and Sparky set a timer on the projector before joining her.

A bright light filled their vision, and they both experienced the sensation of moving very rapidly over a great span of space, though both knew their bodies remained back in the hub.

Rose and Sparky gasped as their surroundings asserted themselves into their mental senses. Sparky immediately began looking around at the odd lab they found themselves in, while Rose jerkily took a few steps.

"Why is it so easy for you to move around?" Rose asked, annoyed at how long it took her to get used to moving without a body.

"Well, the Time Lords had the ability to form astral projections of themselves, and this is quite similar. I guess it's a bit instinctive," Sparky shrugged, looking at the odd machines and computers. "What do we have here?" she asked rhetorically, gesturing Rose over with a grin.

"The TARDIS!" she exclaimed excitedly. She ran up to the blue box, wishing she could properly touch her and let her know how much she had missed her. Sparky grinned at Rose for a moment, but then tensed, hearing something behind her.

"Excuse me, but may I ask who you are?" a frail voice asked. Sparky turned around to see an old man walking towards them.

"Oh, hello! I'm sorry for intruding, we're...travelers, and we accidentally landed here. My name is Sparky, and this is Rose," the time lady explained cheerfully.

The old man's eyes widened for a moment. "Rose?" he questioned, and then cleared his throat. "That's a very pretty name, an old flower, wasn't it? Anyway, my name is Professor Yana, and I'm in charge of the project here."

Though she was uncertain about his reaction to Rose's name, Sparky replied without missing a beat. "Could you tell me what you're doing? I've never seen much of this equipment before."

As the Professor explained the science behind the rocket to Utopia to Sparky, Rose began to wander around the lab, taking in all of the old technology that also seemed advanced. Eventually she found herself in the front of the room, where a familiar figure was sitting at the computer.

"Martha?" she questioned.

The girl spun around. "Rose!" she exclaimed, jumping up. "What are you doing here?" She seemed slightly upset at seeing her, and Rose wondered if something was wrong.

"Well, our dimensional projector is linked to the TARDIS," she began sheepishly. Before she could continue, Martha turned back to the computer, which seemed to be broken.

"Doctor, you there?" she called out, refreshing the stream.

"Yeah, we're still here. Jack's almost done," a voice called out. Rose gasped as she heard the Doctor's voice, even though it was distorted by static.

"Professor?" Sparky exclaimed. Rose and Martha turned to see Sparky leading the Professor to a chair, looking concerned and slightly scared. Both also noticed the fob watch in his hand.

Looking at Sparky leading the Professor, Rose realized she was solid as well. "Was there another solar flare?" she demanded, quickly striding over to her friend.

Sparky glanced at her and shook her head. "But Cardiff is going to be experiencing a blackout for awhile." Her voice was extremely serious; Rose realized that with a potential time lord here, Sparky wanted to be as solid as possible to make sure events didn't go awry.

"Its funny, all this talk about time travel and regeneration and dimensions...I heard there was time travel in the old days, but I never really believed it!" he cried, holding his head. He gestured to his fob watch. "I never could tell time; even this old thing is broken!" His assistant, who had briefly introduced herself to Sparky, hovered behind him, obviously worried.

"Chantho, go get him some water," Sparky advised gently.

Martha stepped forward as Chantho hurried to get water. "Professor, where did you get that watch?" she asked, his eyes trained intently on the metal fob watch.

He seemed surprised. "This? I was found with it, an orphan in the storm by the silver devastation. It's just an old relic, jus like me. It's broken though."

"How do you know it's broken if you've never opened it?" she pressed. Sparky's eyes seemed to flash at her, mentally telling her to _shut up!_ so as not to cause a problem. The force of Spark's thought apparently was enough that, even in this form, she forced Martha to stop talking, looking slightly puzzled.

Not noticing the ire of the person helping him, Professor Yana frowned in consternation. "Oh, well, I don't know," he mumbled.

"Chan, I have your water, tho," Chantho said politely, handing the glass to the Professor, who gratefully drank it all.

"Thank you, my dear," he said courteously, nodding to her.

Rose turned and looked at Martha. "Where did you say the Doctor was?"

Martha shrugged. "He's with Jack, fixing the rocket footprints before it goes off," she said casually. "You know, 'cause the rooms flooded with stet radiation and Jack's the only one who can survive being in there."

Rose nodded carefully. "Well yeah, because he's immortal," she said in the same tone Martha used.

Standing up from the Professor, Sparky patted him on the back with a smile. "You rest, alright?" Then she walked over to the two women. "Jack's here?" she questioned furtively.

Martha nodded, and then her eyes widened. "That's right, you've been looking for him!" she exclaimed. "Can I tell him and the Doctor to come up here?"

"That would be best; I don't want to be wondering around too much, or we'll use to much power if we stray from our access point," she said. Martha nodded and quickly left. Sparky sighed. "And you can stop blabbing about the watch," she muttered.

Rose frowned. "Do you think that he's one of the bad Time Lords?"

Sparky shrugged. "Well, he's certainly not a good once. He obviously used a chameleon arch to flee the war, so he cared more for his own skin than the rest of Gallifrey. I bet he didn't really have a great past with the Time Lords."

"All this talk of time..." a voice muttered behind them. They both spun around to the Professor, who was staring at the watch, with Chantho nervously watching him.

He flipped it open.

Sparky's entire body went rigid as a golden glow engulfed the elderly man, until the light was spent and faded away. She glared at him with mistrust as he observed them all with a malevolent gaze. She seemed terrified and angry at the same time, and Rose stilled as well as the emotions from the two Gallifreyans filled the room.

Without saying a word, the Time Lord began moving briskly around the room. He pulled a lever down, ignoring the protests from his assistant. "Chan, you are locking them in, tho!"

"Sir," Sparky said firmly, prompting him to stop with his hand on another lever and turn to her.

"Sir is nice, but I much prefer Master," he said in the same firm tone, pulling the switch down all the way as regarded the two travelers. "Inter-dimensional travel, now that is a feat," he said snidely. "Pity you haven't figured out how to do it right."

"Just so you know, the war is over; Gallifrey is gone," Sparky said tonelessly, her gaze hard as she stared unblinkingly at the Master. Beside her, Rose felt unbelievably tense. Sparky had told her stories about the Master that she knew from her father's memories, and the animosity between him and the Doctor. She felt worried that the Master would do whatever possible to destroy him.

"Um, Master?" she began quietly, hating how timid she sounded. She cleared her throat as his gaze left Sparky and turned to her. "Just so that you know, the only Time Lords in the universe are here, in this building, right now. Do you really want to do anything to make yourself the last?"

His cruel gaze seemed to burrow into her mind, making her shiver. "Ah, Ms. Rose. The girl who absorbed time and destroyed the Daleks with a thought. I couldn't see it as a human, but I certainly see it now, even if you are just a projection. Time just pulses around you, doesn't it? How must it feel, to have had and lost all of that power? To make one man unkillable, and to kill the Doctor." He seemed to relish the thought. Rose blinked once, and realized he was trying to enter her mind, to see for himself, and forced him out just as Sparky had taught her to do.

As the Master taunted Rose, Sparky had discreetly undone the damage the Master did to the security system, allowing the Doctor, Jack and Martha to return to the control room.

"Sorry, taught her a few tricks," Sparky said unapologetically. "It's always good to know how to protect one's mind."

"Oh? And how would you know how to keep a Time Lord out?" the Master said, returning his focus to Sparky.

She smirked. "Really? You think a human could devise a way to safely travel across the void without any damage to the walls or to those traveling?"

His eyes widened. "You're a Time Lady," he stated. Sparky just smirked, and then grinned as the sound of rushed footsteps reached them.

"Where are they Martha?" the Doctor demanded wildly. He froze upon entering the room, seeing the Master, Sparky and Rose, with Chantho nervously standing off to the side. His eyes flew from Rose to the Master and then back again, and again, as if he couldn't decide on whom to give his focus to. Then he locked eyes with Sparky. "You need to leave, now," he commanded urgently, his eyes flickering back to Rose.

Behind him, Jack had also paused, and stared in shock at seeing Sparky and Rose. "Sparky, you're alive! And looking as good as ever, I can see," he added suavely, trying to diffuse the tension in the room.

Sparky glared. "Oh, don't worry; you'll get to grovel to me later. Now, unfortunately, is not the time Captain."

The Master laughed. "Oh, you've got some attitude, don't you?" he said to Sparky. Then he turned to the Doctor, and the last two Time Lords glared at each other. "Well Doctor, useless as usual I can see. An _infant_ manages to cross dimensions when you can't, and can recognize a latent Time Lord, even as a projection!" Sparky glared fiercely at the Master, and began playing with her watch, almost unconsciously.

Rose, who had been staring at the Doctor and Jack, turned back to Sparky. "Don't you dare," she whispered in her ear, knowing that she had been about to send her back. Unfortunately for them, the Master still seemed to have heard.

"Oh, Miss Rose, your friend is just being proactive. You can't do anything to help from a universe away," he said with mock-politeness. Then suddenly he was wielding a gun. "But you can do plenty of harm."

The shot rang out, and Sparky screamed as she fell in front of Rose, who she had dived in front of. The Doctor sprinted over to her, and Rose and the Doctor both helped her sit up, holding their hands to her stomach.

Sparky waved them off. "I'm a projection, you can't do much to help me!" she hissed, pushing them away to start inputting the coordinates of Torchwood Three into her shifter.

"Ah, very intelligent again. And to risk your life for a human...a very interesting human, though. I can almost see what you would value in her," the Master mused, before also yelling out in pain as Chantho hit him with the electric cable. He stumbled back, into the TARDIS, unnoticed, as Chantho cried.

"Chan, I'm so sorry Professor, tho," she whispered.

The Doctor quickly grabbed Rose's hand as Sparky grabbed her other, preparing to leave. "Don't give her any aspirin, no matter what," he urgently whispered. Rose nodded. "And..." he sighed. "Rose Tyler, I still have to finish that sentence. I—"

And Rose and Sparky were gone, and the Doctor tightly closed his eyes, his hand falling away. He knew that she had nothing to do with it, that it had all been in the return sequence, but he detested Sparky for a moment for separating him from Rose again, just as he had been about to tell her...

"She didn't mean for it to be that moment, Doctor," Jack said gently, patting him on the shoulder. "She's probably kicking herself right now."

With a sigh, the Doctor shook his head. "It's probably better, so that she can get medical attention." The Doctor stood, and glanced around. Martha looked shell-shocked; Chantho was still quietly crying from—wait a moment. "Where's the Master?"

Martha and Jack jumped and looked around, and then everyone turned to look at the TARDIS as it began to dematerialize. "No, wait, please!" The Doctor cried out, sprinting to his ship. He looked into the windows, and could see the flash of regeneration occurring. He took his chance and locked the control of the ship before it finally faded away.

Leaving the four of them alone at the end of the universe.


	6. Chapter 6

With a strong jolt, Rose reappeared in the Torchwood base in Cardiff, completely shocked at the jarring shift of reality. One heartbeat ago, she had been holding tightly onto Sparky, and staring into the Doctor's ancient eyes, as he began to say the words she thought he never would, never let herself imagine that he would.

A moan immediately drew her out of her thoughts, and she almost flew to Sparky, who was clutching her stomach in pain. Blood was seeping from her fingers as she tried to push pressure into the wound to prevent herself from bleeding out.

"Wha' the hell happened?" Mickey demanded, rushing into the room with Jake. "Did someone get in?" Both men cast a suspicious glance around the room, as if expecting to see gunmen in the corners.

Rose shook her head, taking her friend's pulse, finding it weak but steady. "No, she got shot over there, and somehow she got wounded over here, though I really don't know how. But we need to get her to the hospital, fast!"

"Already on it boss," Jake said, pulling his phone out and calling for an ambulance. As he did that, Rose and Mickey sat by Sparky, holding their hands over her wound and trying to keep her conscious.

"Hey, it's alright!" Rose said to her, trying to muster up some enthusiasm but failing. "We'll get you to the hospital and they'll fix you up, alright?"

Sparky turned a weak glare her way. "Oh, twenty-first century medicine. Yes, I feel very safe. If we were in the twenty-ninth, it would be much better." She then started t cough weakly, and globs of red sputtered out of her mouth.

Rose and Mickey shared a quick look, and then Mickey scooped Sparky up into his arms, and they sprinted upstairs into the tourist office and into the plaza. An ambulance was already there, and they quickly climbed into the back with a trail of blood behind them.

* * *

><p>A man in a dark jacket ran across the hanger, frantically trying to find a way to escape his unintended prison. He was beyond desperate: a primitive instinct was at war inside of him, taking away the intelligence he had always spouted at the universe. He could recognize that this moment wasn't fixed, and he could divert the future from the one he had seen pass. It could be happier, safer, not the destruction of the few friends he had left in the universe.<p>

She rolled her eyes, watching him pound the door for a moment. The man honestly needed to invest in a communicator of some sort for when situation such as this arose so he could call for the help he incorrectly seemed to assume was banned from him. She cleared her throat, and—

_Bee-beep. Bee-beep. Bee-beep._

The chemical smell of a hospital invaded her senses, and she became aware of the disheveled, wary thoughts that permeated the building she was currently in. She slowly opened her eyes, conscientious of the bright lights shining directly above her bed, and took stock of where she was.

It was obviously a hospital room, with bland, neutral walls, a small window showing off the zeppelins racing across the sky, and a familiar blond dozing off in the chair beside her bed. It wasn't hard to assume why she was here—the pain in her side was evidence enough—though she felt uncomfortable at the thought of being at the mercy of others for the entire period she was unconscious. Jack had always told her it was safer to avoid hospitals, and she had heartily agreed with his logic. Who knew what the future of this alternate earth could now hold, if her unique physiology was now in the records?

Sparky stared at Rose for a moment, noticing that she looked more tired than usual, and slightly gaunt, as if she had gone too long without sitting down or resting. Sparky tried to discern how long she had been unconscious, but whatever drugs she was given were messing with her thought process. She sighed, and recognizing that her body still needed rest, allowed her mind to once again go dark…

He stood just outside of a dark stall on some seedy, backwater planet. He seemed tired, as if the centuries of running were catching up to him. But there was still a small glimmer of defiance and hope in his eyes, even as he walked into the building with the agent.

When he came out, even that was gone.

He was a man ready to die, having seen what not giving up would do. He had lived a long life, but it had been a life dedicated to trying to help others. What other end could he have, other than sacrificing himself to finish his duty?

But he couldn't have realized what that would do to her. If he died, she would be all alone, the last of her kind. Until she too was hunted down and killed, just on the off-chance that somehow she knew his secret.

But even though she didn't know the secret he had to keep, she had one that was no longer hers.

* * *

><p>This time, wakefulness was much more violent, even as her mind clung to the pieces of potential futures rattling about her awareness.<p>

"Sparky, you need to get up now! We've managed to get a permanent lock on the Doctor, not the TARDIS," Mickey cried out. Sparky just blinked stupidly at him. "Rose has been trying to contact him but it's too hard just sending messages. She's trying to cross over right now!"

Sparky jumped up now, still connected to several IVs, and promptly ripped them all out as she fell to the floor. Mickey caught her, and frowned at the small traces of blood running down her arms. Her side twinged painfully, but she managed to stand up straight and look Mickey in the eyes.

"Tell me what happened, exactly, to make her do something so stupid."

Mickey nodded, and slid her black coat over her shoulders to cover the hospital scrubs she was dressed in. "Let's walk and talk, I have a car waiting for us outside." As he guided her through the halls of the private hospital, Sparky concentrated on shutting down the pain receptors in her body so she would be more alert and focused. "When you got back, we were worried, because even more stars have been going out, at a higher rate than before. She tried opening a link with the TARDIS to talk to the Doctor, but it wasn't working. She came by earlier to try and wake you up, but the doctor's here wouldn't let her. So she locked herself in the hub and is trying to project herself across the void."

Sparky stopped just outside the doors to the elevators. "So she finally became suicidal then?" she asked flatly, her obvious anger hovering just beneath the surface.

Mickey ushered her into the lift and pressed the bottom button. While her anger was impressive, it wasn't the most impressive he'd ever seen; that honor belonged to the man they were trying so hard to find. "I don't know if suicidal is the word I would use, but reckless and impulsive would do the trick."

Sparky nodded with a cold smirk playing across her face. "I agree. But for what she's trying to do, it pretty much is a death sentence. I can imagine the ire of her mother should she find out." Mickey winced and nodded, helping her out of the elevator and outside, where there was indeed a car waiting. She gently slid in, and Mickey got in behind her. Jake was at the driver's seat, and as soon as the door closed, he tore out of the parking lot.

They drove in silence for a moment, before Sparky spoke again. "How long ago did she lock herself in?" she asked carefully.

"I'd say almost an hour ago. We tried opening the doors but she initiated quarantine so we wouldn't be able to get in," Jake informed her. She nodded, her face becoming calculating as she watched the streets of Cardiff tear by.

"So she's had time to cross over at least once then," the teenager muttered.

Mickey frowned at her. "At least once? She wouldn't be able to project more than that anyway!" Sparky shook her head and gestured outside to the street with one pale finger. Most stores seemed to have lost power, and traffic was beginning to build up in front of them. Jake swore and put the siren on, weaving through the stationary cars. Mickey frowned, and then turned back to Sparky. "So you think she's trying to cross again right now? This isn't just her trying to become solid?"

Sparky shrugged carefully, aware of the small amount of pain still radiating from her side. "I have no idea what she's doing; I'm just pointing out what she could be doing." Her voice was frosty, and Mickey noticed her clenching a fist with one hand in obvious pain. She noticed his worry, and shrugged it off. "It's not my side; I just have a bit of a headache."

He nodded, but still watched her for the rest of the trip in concern. She didn't notice, however, as she was too focused on the immediate future, trying to see if there was the possibility of a funeral coming up.

Blackness. All she saw was an infinite blackness with a mad cackle traveling on the last wind, stirring the remains of universes until even that was gone, leaving just a blank. There was nothing there.

Sparky squeezed her eyes tight, and came back to the present. It alarmed her, how likely of a future that was. The future seemed to go either that way, or one other only.

Fire erupted everywhere, drawing her into its center, into the madness she had just escaped. She could feel the force of it, pulling everything within a certain radius, and she was within that unfortunate pull. She could inexplicably feel the screams and pain of millions of others, and knew she was being dragged into the true hell of her universe. Someone else was there, a flash of bright, bright gold, and a wolf's howl echoing through her mind.

She blinked. That path wasn't as likely as the darkness, but there was a certain pull to it, which made her think that they were more on a path towards it than any other. She exhaled slowly, expelling the worries she felt over the future. It seemed that even if Rose didn't die now, there was any chance she'd be dead soon anyway.

She was frowning heavily as she walked with the two Torchwood agents into the hub; this universe didn't have an invisible lift—that was all Jack, who likely wouldn't ever spend more than a moment in the twenty-first century of this universe, as there was no Doctor to take him to the Gamestation that would lead to his immortality. If there even was a Jack here.

"So what have you done so far to break quarantine?" Sparky questioned, walking up to the group of scientists standing around the door to the main part of the base. None of these people were the agents Jack had recruited, though each was as crazy and brave, though slightly more inclined to follow orders.

Dr. Hooper stood up calmly from her desk, where she had been going over reports; as a mortician, she wasn't qualified to try and override the quarantine; she had likely taken the opportunity to catch up on paperwork.

"Hello, Agent Sparks. You seem to be feeling better?" she asked, walking over to her as Mickey went to help with the override. Jake followed him, kneeling down to help try and get the door down.

"Yes, Dr. Hooper, thank you," Sparky replied. "So what have you all been doing?"

Hooper shrugged and folded her hair behind her ears. "Well, I couldn't tell you the exact logistics of it, but I know that they've tried at least thirty codes to try and open the door, and have tried to cut the power a few times to see if they could get the door on. Of course, it being quarantine, the power wouldn't go out."

Sparky nodded her thanks, and then pulled out her iSonic. It was a rather ingenious device she had created out of an iPod touch that she had luckily had on her when she was sucked through the rift. She had added universal roaming, sonic technology and an app to connect to her shifter to create what was essentially a miniature supercomputer that also had many abilities as any other sonic device. Including opening doors.

She pointed the device at the door, which promptly hissed opened. Everyone froze, confused, until they saw her hurriedly walking through the door, running to the section of the lab where the cannon was set up.

Rose was indeed hooked into it; she was enveloped by the light that signaled that one was being projected, and the scanner showed that she was currently solid as well, which may have explained why there was issues with the power.

Sparky, favoring her right side heavily from her wound, walked over to the computer. It showed that she was on earth, in early 2008 in London, and that she had been gone for about five minutes. Looking worriedly at her friend, Sparky pulled up the history of the device, and then sighed in relief. She had only projected once; otherwise she had just sent out a video feed twice, once to the TARDIS and once to some kind of bus.

"Aren't you going to unplug it?" Dr. Hooper asked, looking worriedly at Rose. Sparky shook her head.

"I don't want to risk anything," she replied simply, intently watching her friend. Within a few minutes, Rose returned to herself, gasping loudly and stumbling to the side. Mickey immediately rushed forward and helped her sit in a chair, and Jake handed her some water. Dr. Hooper and the other doctor on staff, Dr. Harper (Owen's parallel) started checking her over, making sure everything was fine.

Rose tiredly looked up and noticed Sparky—she seemed both pleased and worried by her presence. "How are you feeling?" she asked breathlessly. Sparky, seeing that her friend was fine, did nothing beyond stare at her with expressionless eyes, leaning against the wall to support herself.

Rose winced. "Alright, I know it was stupid, but it needed to be done. The stars have been going out at quicker pace than before. I couldn't just wait for you to come out of your coma!" Again, Sparky did not reply, simply staring at her. Rose scoffed. "Stop acting like a 5 year old," she started, but was cut off as Sparky calmly walked over and grabbed a fistful of her hair. Everyone started, but froze when they saw her face. Her expression was completely devoid of emotion, but her eyes were burning fire.

"If you ever do that again, rest assured, I will leave you here and go home myself," she stated flatly. She walked around Rose and began typing in the computer, checking the input of everything. "You should go home and rest while I fix what you've done."

Rose stood up, gaping, but before she could come up with any retort, Mickey grabbed her and led her outside. "Just listen to her for now, okay? Before she goes nuts and tries to kill all of us?" Everyone followed them as they walked out except Dr. Hooper.

"Um, Miss Sparks?" she asked hesitantly. Sparky looked over at her tiredly. "I don't think you should get mad at Rose, she was just trying to help."

Sparky nodded and closed her eyes. "Dr. Hooper, I see the world much differently than anyone else. I can see what was, is, and what could be. And Rose is rather important for upcoming events—I couldn't tell you why, but I just know that she is. I don't think it will help anyone if she dies because of her stupidity."

Hooper nodded. "I understand, or, well, as much as I could, I suppose. But don't you think you should tell her that, then?"

Sparky frowned and shook her head. "It's dangerous to know the future for anyone. I don't want to risk it getting set in stone if it's something bad."

Hooper frowned. "Why are you telling me then?"

Sparky regarded her for a moment, her face even more gaunt in the bright light of the computer monitors. "I suppose because you aren't directly involved in any of this. I mean, you're from this universe, you live here in Cardiff. You're not involved with Time Lords and time travel." Grimacing slightly, she continued. "I'm sorry, that makes you sound insignificant. You're not, of course, but you're not a player in these events. "

Dr. Hooper nodded. "That makes sense I guess. But I think you should get some rest, once you finish with what you're doing. I mean, you look like you could keel over."

Sparky snorted slightly. "I wasn't quite healed yet when Mickey woke me up," she said simply, turning back to the computers. Understanding that they were done, Dr. Hooper went back into her part of the base to finish her paperwork.


End file.
